The DC character Maxima has appeared on TV in the flesh twice.
The first time was on the CW show Smallville where she was played by Charlotte Sullivan.
A very pretty actress to say the least, but she didn't look like someone that could go toe to toe with Superman.
But on Supergirl, we got former WWE Diva and BJJ trainer Eve Torres Gracie, who looked more like she could take on Supes.
Long before there was a Justice League of America...or a Justice League, there was the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics.
How long before?
Well the Justice Society of America was created by Sheldon Mayer and Gardner Fox in 1940.
The idea was sound.
Take heroes that didn’t have a lot of exposure and put them in a book to get attention to them.
Make the big guns, Superman and Batman honorary members to draw even more attention and see what happens.
Well it worked.
The membership at first was Doctor Fate, Hourman, the Spectre, Sandman, the Atom, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman.
Within a year, the Flash and Green Lantern got their own books and left the JSA.
There were only two female characters in the series run, Wonder Woman and Black Canary and actually All Star Comics #8 was Wonder Woman's first appearance.
Although it has been said that Ma Hunkel, the original Red Tornado, was an honorary member as well.
The book ran until 1951 and issue number 57.
In the mid-sixties, DC reintroduced the JSA as heroes that lived on a prarallel Earth, Earth 2.
They had all retired then and interestingly, in Adventure Comics #466 in 1979 it was explained that the JSA had disbanded because of the Joint Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, which demanded they unmask.
An idea that Alan Moore would revisit seven years later in his Watchmen saga.
The JSA has shown up in other media.
Cartoon Network's Justice League had a variation of the JSA called the Justice Guild of America.
Then in Justice League Unlimited several JSA members appear.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold also featured many of the original JSA members.
But to date the BEST portrayal of the JSA was on Season 9 of Smallville, in the two-part Absolute Justice.
Here we get to see several JSA members, flashbacks to the Joint Un-American Activities Committee hearings and enough "Easter eggs" to make any JSA fan delirious.
Example...shots of the original Green Lantern's power battery, Hawkgirl's helmet and mace, the JSA meeting table.
It was awesome.
When I saw this originally it almost gave me chills....
Although she is not a hugely popular comic book character, Zatanna Zatara is hugely popular with the fans. Everybody loves her. She was created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson and first showed up in Hawkman #4 way back in 1964. Zatanna fought crime in a classic magician's outfit (top hat, tails etc) and spoke words backwards to create magic spells. Yeah I know, original but really....what?
Zatanna was brought to picture perfect life on the CW TV series "Smallville" played by Canadian actress Serinda Swan. She seriously looked like she just stepped out of the comic book. Which was kinda odd for Smallville and their sometimes very broad interpretations of DC characters.
She first appeared in season eight, in the episode titled "Hex", then appeared in season nine in the episode "Warrior". In season ten in "Warrior" Zatanna is in the background but is played by a stand in dressed in her outfit.
They tried to launch a standalone Zatanna movie back in 2005 as an action comedy, but nothing ever came of it.
Now here is Zatanna's possibly very cool future..... Guillermo del Toro is working on a Justice League Dark film titled "Dark Universe". Since John Constantine is a member of JLD and has his own series coming up on NBC, del Toro has said that the film will exist in the same universe as the TV show, and that he might get the actor from the series to play Constantine in the movie, unlike the main DC Universe that wont be doing such cross-overs. Now...Zatanna is already set to appear in the film...so will we get Zatanna showing up on the Constantine TV series as well since the two were an item in the comics? It could happen...
In 2007, the CW TV show Smallville gave us an incredibly hot version of
Supergirl played by the gorgeous Laura Vandervoort.
This Supergirl had Helen Slater's naivety at first, but slowly developed
a personality that was sweet...but she knew she could punch you through
a wall if she had to.
They played around a LOT with her story, as they did with every
storyline on Smallville.
But they did work in a few things from the comics like her going to to
the 31st century to join the Legion and using glasses and a wig to hide
her secret identity.
In some of the odder things they did, she could fly and Clark couldn't
and she even kind of "became" Supergirl at one point before Clark became
Superman.
It was messed up yeah, but it was Smallville.
They really didn’t try to reign into the DC mythos until the last couple of seasons.
And it's no secret that I would have loved to see Laura Vandervoort get her own "Supergirl" spin-off show.
But that didn’t happen.
For all it's up and downs, I have hung in there with Smallville and it finally looks like that it's paying off. Hey, it only took ten years. I loved last season (season 9), and this final season could be even better. I say "could" because I have seen Smallville really fumble the ball more than once.
Yeah I know that Smallville goes way off Superman canon, but a long time ago I accepted this as an alternate reality Superman story, so I really dont have a problem with the show.
But this season looks promising with a ton of guest stars including...
Michael Shanks as Hawkman Sahar Biniaz as Hawkgirl Bradley Stryke as Deadshot The return of Aquaman (Alan Ritchson) The return of Kara/Supergirl (Laura Vandervoort) Erica Cerra (as Isis?) Darkseid (?) Lex Luthor (?) A great "stunt cast" with Terri Hatcher as Lois Lane's mother
...and many more.
And I'm guessing we will finally get to see Clark put on the red and blue suit, probably in the last few seconds of the series finale.
Well I was going to start this out by presenting the opening clip for the Smallville season 9 finale last week. But when I went to YouTube to get it, I was given the customary :
"This video contains content from Warner Bros. Entertainment, who has blocked it on copyright grounds."
Way to promote the show guys! Seeing what was possibly one of the best Smallville openings ever wouldn't bring in any fans would it? I mean, they were stealing the whole show right? Not just giving a teaser that would maybe get more people to watch, or catch up on what they have missed to get to this point.
Now that I'm done with my tirade, I have to admit, the opening of the season finale was as "squee-worthy" as Absolute Justice. If you recorded it and can do a high quality stop, frame by frame, you actually get to see The Man of Steel himself save a plane.
Over at the IMDb Smallville message board, SaintSpidey67-El posted a stop frame image captured from the plane save (click on the picture for the full size version)...
So thanks to SaintSpidey67-El for making like Superman and saving the day!
